Most of the commentary on the rioting in France seemed to focus on the socioeconomic angle, something very comfortable politically to American liberals as it recalled the racial discrimination that created the 1960's " long hot summer" riots in this country. The second largest segment of opinion dealt with Islamism in France which American conservatives harkened to as it fit the current War on Terror framework. Very few commenters, notably John Robb, discussed the role of criminal gangs controlling TAZ in French suburbs for years, in spreading the riots.

I thought I would put forth some of the more provocative evaluations on the riots from some different ideological and theoretical perspectives that emerged as the rioting ebbed.

Interestingly enough, the high rise public housing in some poor French suburbs is a very familiar sight to me or anyone from Chicago, resembling the 1950's and 1960's housing projects like Cabrini Green and the Robert Taylor Homes built by the first Daley administration. The solution to gang-rule and drug trade warfare in these buildings ultimately was to begin demolishing them; neither the city of Chicago's very tough police department nor the Feds were ever able to reestablish order there after the 1980's. Even the much publicized " move-in" to Cabrini of Mayor Jane Byrne which flooded the projects with uniformed and plainclothes police, could not break the grip of Chicago's paramilitary street gangs like the Vice Lords, the Black Gangster Disciples and the El Rukns over the projects.

It will be interesting to see if the French state can impose its rule-sets in these suburban zones that the French government itself admits have been beyond their effective grasp or if ultimately they will try a " tear down and disperse" solution along with social and assimilation programs.

"The Islamic traditional culture" is pure potted nonesense. Anyone with a spot of experience in the MENA region (never mind the wider Islamic world) knows very well there is no such thing.

There are Islamic cultures, in the plural, which just like Xian ones, despite having common religious influences, are quite different from each other. Needless to say, male on female domestic violence, something which crops up in all societies, also varies within the Islamic world (as it does in the Xian world, and the pagan world).

Idiotic generalisations are just that.

As to the substance, which is with respect to France:(i) Anyone familiar with the profile of sub-Saharan African immigration to France understands a significant percentage is non-Muslim, the easy characterisation of the Black African rioters as Muslim is based on a poor sense of the situ(ii) I would opine that the 'gang' problem, while real, is nowhere near as severe as the US gang problem. While the French problem could get there (ex the extreme gun issue), it is not there yet. (iii) The issue at hand is largely a "ethno-racial" one of 'visible minorities' [and perceived non-Xian/whiteness] rather than a religious issue.

In short, most of the blithering on in the US blogosphere, to use that idiotic phrase, was utterly off base and nothing more than ill informed banging on based on stereotypes and bugbears that had fuck all to do with the real situ.

" I would opine that the 'gang' problem, while real, is nowhere near as severe as the US gang problem."

American street gangs are morphing into national and even transnational organized crime networks like the Mafia did a century ago, of which, Chicago's street gangs are among the most sophisticated and rigidly disciplined ( far more so than LA's loose Crip/Blood associations)and profitable. The gang leaders impose an economy of violence to maximize revenue,recruitment and minimize police attention